1,000 Places to See Before You Die In the U.S. and Canada

Cattlemen's Restaurant & Stockyards City

When cattlemen and cowboys come into town they head straight for Stockyards City Main Street, a retail district smack in the center of the city, chock-full of saddleries and Western-wear clothing stores. It's right next to the Oklahoma National Stockyards, the world's largest stocker/feeder market, where every Monday and Tuesday you can watch live cattle being auctioned, a spectacle where millions of dollars change hands with the nod of a head.

For the uninitiated, cattlemen are the men who own the livestock (cowboys are the hired hands) and, their business dealings done, they stop at Cattlemen's Restaurant, the consummate Western steakhouse and the state's busiest restaurant.The most popular cut is rib-eye quickly broiled over hot charcoals and served in a salty jus with homemade Parker House rolls. Adventurous palates can start with a plate of lamb fries – the deep-fried testicles of lambs. Delicately flavored and melting tender, they can taste pretty good if you don't know what you're eating.

The original 1910 cafe is popular for breakfast, but the dinner crowd likes the 1960's-era South Dining Room. Settle into a red vinyl booth, riding a little low from the bulk of generations of beef-lovers before you, and enjoy the backlit wall-size panorama, a garishly tinted photograph of two gentlemen ranchers herding Black Angus beneath a radiant blue sky. One of them is Gene Wade, who won the place in a craps game in 1945 and ran it until 1990.

(adapted from "1,000 Places to See Before You Die In the U.S. and Canada" by Patricia Schultz)